Review

‘Miranda formerly of The Bis’ the poster outside read. Ouch. Luckily, someone had the sense to grab a marker pen and rectify this. It’s a) Manda and b) just Bis, none of that ‘the’ nonsense.

Only that now it’s not Bis. For Bis have split quite some time ago and it’s about time people recognise young Amanda as a popstress in her own right.

RUSSIANS!

What an intro!

At long last! Something new from Belfast’s bestest electropopsters! Quick, everyone gather round and adore this band! If you like synths and perfect pop songs, you will love this. No really, you bloody well will.

Up until now I didn’t even know this venue existed. Looks like the evil Barfly people are expanding left, right and centre. The venue is okay, if a little small and the sound is abysmal. Mind you, never trust a sound engineer with dreadlocks.

I'll begin with the promotional literature because it left me fairly confused. In a bid to be whimsically clever it manages to tell me nothing about the band except that they dislike Bono and Johnny Borrell and (presumably) they hate writing biographies. Don't we all, but this doesn't give you carte blanche to write something as bad as this:

Superman Revenge Squad is one man, formerly half of Nosferatu D2, formerly a third of Tempertwig, so clearly worthy of attention. One man and a guitar is generally not the most arresting of things musically and even the best songsmiths can be rendered dull and empty by the process, but SRS avoids this somehow.

2007 has been a good year for the Helen Love fan collective. A new album and a new single! You have to import it from Spain still, because it isn’t out in the UK yet (argh!). It is lovely though. The cover is particularly pleasant – it has a girl with good hair and headphones on it. Whoever this is, I do want to go to her clubnight. No really, I do.

It’s My Club is a fun, partly vocodered discoey number. We got bubblegum punkrock disco soul … we got glitter dance floors … we got backbeat, baby. Ooooh, do you really?

A co-release from the people that brought you the lovely Oppenheimer (Smalltown America), and the people that brought you Tiny Masters of Today initially (Tigertrap).

The innovative packaging (you have to rip it open and the damage is irrepairable, because it involves tearing a strip of paper off) will have collectors either in tears or buying two copies (so they can keep a mint one in their cupboard).

Just in time for Christmas, Mikrofisch’s fabulous second album is released. On free download! You will not have to worry about what to give this trendy friend of yours for the festive season any longer.

Mikrofisch are a boy/girl duo based in London and varying German cities. They are armed with Casios, drum machines and some rather enlightening views on the music scene ( skintight jeans and Myspace hair, they have brought this over us … the kids are all shite!). And theories about hair (Bad Hair Day and (Nobody Listens To You When You’ve Got) Flat Hair).

The third album by Jon Chapple's post-Mclusky band is the first one produced with his new Australian version of "Shooting at Unarmed Men": he moved to Melbourne in 2006 and decided to recruit a new band and just keep going with the project. I can't say I notice much of a difference except that this is probably SAUM's best album yet, though it's still not going to garner the sort of critical acclaim of Future of the Left's 'Curses', in part due to it's quirky nature and in part due to it being a triple mini-album.